The Heart of Albany Beats in Tift Park Saturday

ALBANY, Ga. – The 9th Annual Heart of Albany Festival will take place on Saturday, November 7th, 2026. The Albany Museum of Art is partnering with the City of Albany and the city’s Recreation and Parks Department to bring this year’s fall art festival to Tift Park!

In addition to professional chalk artists competing for Best in Show by creating chalk paintings that embody the festival’s Daydreaming theme, artists in different media, from cool painting to hot glass, will showcase their talents during the free event, which takes place from 10 am to 5 pm.

“Tift Park is a beautiful location, and it’s just a few blocks from downtown, where the new home for the Albany Museum of Art will be,” Executive Director Andrew James Wulf, Ph.D., said. “We appreciate our partners with the City of Albany and the Albany Recreation and Parks Department for making the festival’s move to Tift Park possible. It will be an exciting day, and we hope everyone will come out and enjoy all of the art, entertainment, and activities.”

Art will be created in real time as professional chalk artists complete 49-square-foot or larger artworks on pavement as they work to capture the Daydreaming theme. Student groups and amateur artists will also compete for recognition as they complete smaller chalk art paintings on the pavement.

“The theme is inspired by the work of Atlanta artist O.M. Norling, whose surrealistic paintings are on display now in the exhibition Artifacts of a Fate That Never Was,” Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard said. “His work has fantastic, dreamy qualities, with hyper-realistic animals placed in unusual environments that include antique furniture and household objects. Norling also designed the artwork for this year’s T-shirts.”

The festival will also include artists in other disciplines creating works during the day, and some will have pieces for sale to festival-goers. Confirmed artists include painter Hugh Cunningham, photographer James Malphrus, and artist Remington Adams.

“We will have members of the Hot Glass Academy in Americus back this year,” Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Van Oteghem said. “At last year’s festival, there was a steady stream of festival-goers who were fascinated as they watched these artists create pieces of art out of molten glass.”

The Best in Show professional chalk artist and winners in the amateur chalk art categories will be announced in the afternoon, as will the winners of the 3rd annual Student Art Exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art.

“The Heart of Albany Festival is the AMA’s gift to the community each year, one of the ways we say thank you to Albany and Southwest Georgia for the tremendous support that is shown year in and year out for the arts, and for the Albany Museum of Art,” Wulf said.